This week has two assignments. This is the first, create a internet enhanced lesson. One caveat, no use of videos as that is another lesson. That was challenging as I have a couple of ideas for lessons I would like to create, but they include watching some You Tube videos as tutorials.

I created a lesson on heat transfer that involves some online tutorials, hands on classroom activities, and students showcase their learning by creating an infographic.

This week’s topic is ” Online Tools, Uses, Web-based tools, and social networking. As part of the week’s assignments we are to create two Blog posts. This is the first of two posts for the week: “Safety on the Internet”.

In the audio introduction to chapter 6, Roblyer states “today’s students are first-generation citizens of a digital society, pioneers in a country that has no borders and whose contours took shape only in the last decade. Students are quick to seek out the paths of this new frontier, but slower to recognize and avoid its pitfalls.” As a teacher, I must not only help my students learn and explore earth science and physics, but also help them learn to be good digital citizens.

Some of the pitfalls that students (and teachers) may encounter as a result of internet use include: access to inappropriate materials, safety and privacy concerns, computer viruses and hacking, fraud and phishing, online identity and reputation concerns, online plagiarism and cyber cheating. First, we will briefly discuss each as well as guidelines to avoid the pitfalls. Next, will be a Top Ten List for being a good Digital Citizen, and last links for additional information.

Inappropriate Materials: Filtering software is set up at most schools to filter out “inappropriate” material. No filter is fool proof, and sometimes filter outs sites that have educational benefits (YouTube, for example). Students and teachers alike should be aware of the material and report any concerns.

Safety and Privacy Concerns: Social Networking Sites allow students to communicate with their peers locally and from around the world. Some concerns include: on-line predators, unwanted advertising, privacy concerns, and cyberbullying.

On-line Predators: Students should learn that a person online may not be who they say. Students should never give out personal information (full name, address, numbers, location) to anyone online. Students should never plan a in-person meeting with someone they have met online. Students should report any invitations received from an online acquaintance to a teacher or another trusted adult.

On-line Advertising: students should not be lured into clicking or buying anything from advertisements on websites.

Privacy Concerns: Teachers (and students) should be careful to never use last names, addresses, numbers, etc in any online products such as class websites, presentations, etc. This reminds me of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996) known as HIPPA. Health care providers are required to have patients sign HIPPA forms, and must be careful about to whom, how, what, and where they communicate patient information. For example, medical staff should not discuss patient information in a hospital elevator. Teachers, too should take care with what, how, to whom, and where they communicate student information. Teachers (and schools) may want to have students and parents sign a technology use and permission slip to allow student images, web products, etc to be published to the web, as well as to allow students to create and access free accounts such as Gmail, Prezi, etc. The form should also detail what is acceptable use of computers, internet at school and at home.

CyberBullying: is the use of technology to bully others. Students need to be educated from an early age about bullying (both in person and online). Schools need to educate their students about what is cyberbullying, and what to do if a student is being bullied or knows of someone that is being bullied.

Computer viruses andhacking:It is easy to infect a computer with a virus by clicking on a link or downloading software. Both students and teachers should only open links if from a safe source, and download software from trusted websites. Virus protection is helpful but cannot prevent all viruses, so care must be taken.

Fraud and phishing: If making a purchase be sure the site is safe with https: and the lock icon. Never give out or share personal information (PINS, SS#, etc) on line. Reputable companies will NOT ask for this information!

Online Identity and Reputation: Once something is posted online it remains for digital eternity. Students (and teachers) should take care to post appropriate images and comments. A “Digital Footprint is the trail left behind as a result of their social media interactions” (Roblyer, p.176). Students (and teachers) should take care of their digital footprint. Remember colleges and future employers often look at digital footprints! More on that in the top 10 list!

Online plagiarism and cybercheating: Students have access to so much information, but must take care to credit sources for written word and images. To take credit for someone else’s work is not only unethical, but can be illegal if infringing on copyright laws!

Top Ten List for being a good Digital Citizen based on Netiquette for the High School Student (Cooney, 2013) and Netiquette:Rules for Good Manners in Digital Communications (Roblyer, p178) and Rules of Learning on-line etiquette: the role model (Roblyer, p. 179).

10. Think twice before you post. If you think a college admission officer, or parent, or future employer , or …(you fill in the blank) should not see this, then it should probably NOT be posted! Your Digital Footprint is forever!

9. Use appropriate language and grammar. Again, your digital footprint stays with you, and it is best to use good language and grammar.

8. Stay safe. Never give out personal information to someone you have met online. The friend you met online may actually be a predator. Again, NEVER give out your full name, address, phone number, location, etc.

This week was a two part assignment: 1. Create a video library for use in our content area and 2. create lesson plan that utilizes video.

For my video library, I decided to find videos to use during the Astronomy unit of Earth Science. The videos used range from the Big Bang to Star formation to eclipses.

For my lesson, I chose to do introduction to the Big Bang. This is topic that is can be difficult to grasp for students, and the use of video enhances the understanding. I look forward to incorporating this lesson in the fall.

This week we created presentations following the “rules” for presentations. More pictures, less words! The speaker should talk about the topic, not read from the slide! This assignment has motivated me to update many of my presentations that I use in class.

I cannot begin to imagine teaching without these tools; however I can imagine being a student without these tools as I graduated from high school in 1981 and college in 1985, well before these tools were commonplace! According to Roblyer (2014), the “suite” of tools have “improved productivity, improved appearance, improved accuracy, and support interaction and collaboration” (p. 109).

Using the suite (whether from Microsoft, Google, or some other source) empowers both teachers and students.

Teacher Perspective

Using word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software allows teachers to create lesson plans, worksheets, and lets the teacher revise them and share with peers and students. Spreadsheets can be used to analyze grades and visually display data. Presentation software allows teachers to easily create presentations to help students learn about topics. Unfortunately, for some teachers “the presentation becomes a crutch, and they begin to rely on the slides to tell their story, rather than to help them tell the story”. I know that this week’s assignments and readings have made me realize that I need to update my presentations to include more images, links, videos, and far fewer words! I find that I am guilty of using the slide to communicate information rather than as a tool to help me communicate the big idea to the class.

Student Perspective

For me, as a student at BSU, the software suite has revolutionized the way I work. Rather than hand writing everything (like I did in high school and college), I now take notes using word processing. When I write a paper, I begin by typing ideas in word processing, and creating links to my references. Typing notes and ideas is ideal for someone like me with messy handwriting. For me, it has made being a student much easier in terms of organization.

How I use in the classroom

As a teacher, I try to have my students utilize all three types of software.

Wordprocessing~I have them type up their big ideas,and summarize their learning using word processing. Students like being able to quickly get their ideas down, and change them. As a teacher, I appreciate being able to read their work (sometimes, the handwriting is hard to decipher)

Spreadsheets~I ask students to set up data tables in spreadsheets, and use the spreadsheets to calculate the equations, and create graphs. Most students need to learn how to use spreadsheets, but once they learn, they see the value in terms of saving time, and creating ‘professional’ graphs. I like to show them both Excel and Google Sheets, and let them choose the one they prefer.

Presentations~I ask students to share their learning with their classmates (and me) using presentation software. Sometimes the students work in groups and collaborate. Other times, students will peer evaluate each others’ work before passing in for grading. This year, I want to introduce students to other presentation mediums such as Prezi, Emaze, and Piktochart, and allow them to choose the medium that best suits the presentation.

All in all, using word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations greatly enhance the classroom for teacher and student alike.

We needed to create a chart detailing software support tools. Extra Credit for using Symbaloo or Pearltrees. I chose to use Pearltrees as it was easy to navigate and very intuitive. I think it is a great tool for organizing information, and it could probably go on the software support tools chart under “planning and organizing tools”. Here is a link to my software support tools on my Weebly page.

My prior post discusses and gives examples of the different types of instructional software. As part of the week’s assignments we created a lesson plan that utilizes two types of instructional software. I chose a tutorial from Annenberg on Plate Tectonics, and a drill and practice using Quizlet. I plan to create approximately 25-30 flashcards for the lesson plan.

George Lakoff has retired as Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is now Director of the Center for the Neural Mind & Society (cnms.berkeley.edu).